Dancing in the Dark

A devotion written for our church for Good Friday

Dancing in the Dark

John 18:1-19:42

Paul Stroble 

Good Friday is a difficult holiday. It leaves us in the dark---literally. “Tenebrae,” the name of the Good Friday service, is a plural Latin word for darkness. Candles are extinguished during the service, giving increasing degrees of darkness in the sanctuary. Sad hymns, like “Were You There?” or “O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done” may be sung during the service.

Years ago, when I served a little church in rural Illinois, I had a Tenebrae service in which we turned out all the lights in the church except the pulpit light. It was disconcerting, appropriate to the day. 

The expression “dancing in the dark” can mean that you’re looking for hope and purpose when you’re uncertain about everything. Good Friday is that kind of day—if we only look at Good Friday in isolation from the whole story. 

The suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus certainly have deep meaning. The Old Testament is rich and wonderful on its own, and the early followers of Jesus found the meaning of Jesus’ experiences in many passages of the scriptures. For a research project, I found nearly two pages of references: http://paulstroble.blogspot.com/2020/04/to-fulfill-scriptures.html  

The New Testament authors sought to show how Jesus’ sufferings were messianic, corresponding with biblical traditions. Even Jesus’ horrible death was rooted in the ancient word—and there was no shortage of scriptures!    

But during Jesus’ awful experiences (as narrated in our whole Gospel lesson), no one was leafing through the Bible to find key passages. Jesus suffered arrest, betrayal, the absence of all his friends, interrogation, scourging, and crucifixion and death. John’s Gospel does portray Jesus as being in control of the situation, confident in God’s purposes. But the situation is still, on the face of it, horrible. 

This past fall, I taught a course at Webster U called “The Meaning of Life”. We looked at all kinds of topics like: What is the source of meaning? Does the immensity of the universe make our lives less meaningful? Does the inevitability of death heighten or lessen one’s sense of meaning? Does God exist? Why is there suffering? Is there life after death?  

The Discipleship Resources for this lesson raise an interesting issue: What if a person visits your church only on Good Friday, without also coming to Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Sunday? What would a preacher say about Good Friday that would point that person in directions of significance and purpose? Focusing only on the darkness may not give the person all they need.  

Generally, a preacher could put Good Friday in context of God’s whole purposes for our salvation. Jesus took our burdens. Jesus made it possible for us to give all our concerns to God. Jesus gave us confidence that we need never be afraid of God’s rejection---for nothing will separate us from God’s love. Jesus opened a rich tradition of the one true God that we, as Gentiles, might otherwise have missed. Jesus gives us wonderful opportunities to serve other people, to minister to their suffering and to love them unconditionally. 

Even the difficult passage about the lancing of Jesus’ side has positive meaning. The Romans wanted to ensure that Jesus was dead on the cross, so one of them pierced him with a spear. I’ve read that it’s physiologically likely that fluid had gathered around Jesus’ lungs and so both blood and clear liquid flowed from his wound. But notice that John really wants us to understand that this really happened (verse 35)!* The details stand for the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, water and blood and body. 

A pastor would say to that evening visitor: Jesus established the very church in which we all sit! Come back to the church and see what other amazing, wonderful things God has in store!  

Prayer: 

Lord Jesus, thank you for being our Savior. Thank you for going through so much for people you never met—like us who live so long afterward, and those who will live after we are gone. Amen.  

*John refers to Zechariah 12:10, written five hundred years earlier: “so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” John also stresses that Jesus’ bones were not broken in connection to Psalm 34:20, as well as Passover Scriptures like Exodus 12:43–46 and Numbers 9:12. These Passover texts, in turn, connect us back to the image of Jesus as the Lamb of God. The Romans, acting in reluctant mercy, unknowingly acted according to rich traditions of Hebrew scriptures.